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Freebie and Bean are a pair of maverick detectives with the SFPD Intelligence Squad. The volatile, gratuity-seeking Freebie is trying to get promoted to the vice squad to garner perks for his retirement while the neurotic and fastidious Bean has ambitions to make lieutenant. Against a backdrop of Super Bowl weekend in San Francisco, the partners are trying to conclude a 14-month investigation, digging through garbage to gather evidence against well-connected racketeer Red Meyers, when they discover that a hit man from Detroit is after Meyers as well. After rejecting their pretext arrest of Meyers to protect him, the district attorney orders them to keep him alive until Monday.

After locating and shooting the primary hit man, and distracted by Bean's suspicions that his wife is having an affair with the landscaper, they continue their investigation seeking a key witness against Meyers who can explain and corroborate the evidence. In the midst of this, they foil a second hit on Meyers by a backup team, leading to a destructive vehicle and foot pursuit through the city, after which they learn that Meyers is planning to fly to Miami before Monday. Tailing him, they receive word that their witness has been located and a warrant issued for Meyers' arrest. Unbeknownst to them, the hooker Freebie has picked up is actually a female impersonator and another hit man.

During the arrest attempt Bean is shot by the hit man, who flees with Meyers into the stadium where the Super Bowl is underway. Freebie corners the hit man in a women's restroom, and despite being shot himself, rescues a hostage and kills the hit man. The D.A. arrives after the shootings and tells Freebie that the warrant is canceled because the witness was assassinated on the way to the station. Freebie goes nuts and demands to be allowed to arrest Meyers, only to find that he has died of a heart attack. Freebie is further demoralized to learn that the evidence they gathered was planted by Meyers' wife in an extra-marital conspiracy with the lieutenant in command of their squad.

Bean is not dead after all, however, and in the ambulance the two wounded partners engage in a free-for-all, blaming each other for their injuries, and causing yet another accident.

The plot involves the "totaling" of three unmarked police vehicles during chase-crash sequences. One was filmed on the since-demolished Embarcadero Freeway, ending with Caan and Arkin's car crashing into an apartment building. After the car lands in an elderly couple's bedroom as they are watching television, Arkin collapses from nervous shock against the wall as Caan calls for a tow truck, adding that their apartment is on the third floor. The couple retains their aplomb throughout.[5]

A short-lived nine-episode television series based on the film and sharing its title, starring Tom Mason and Héctor Elizondo in the title roles, was broadcast on CBS on Saturday nights at 9:00 PM in December 1980 and January 1981.[9][10]